🔗 Share this article

Respawn Entertainment has an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale gamers, perfectly timed for festive season. Enthusiasts of this game's highly fluid traversal can rejoice to discover that a new movement mechanic will be introduced when Season 27: Amped launches on November 4th.

Introducing The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this ability provides gamers a burst of forward momentum when scaling ledges and walls. As explained lead battle royale designer the design lead, this technique has unofficially been a feature of Apex Legends for some time, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." But it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. This season, the team simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these tricky movement boosts.

"This technique have been in the game for some time, but executing it isn't easy to pull off and a player would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," Canavese explains. "We're adding a visual cue so users can clearly identify the timing to activate the fast-paced traversal skill, making accessible the feature and introducing fresh strategies to play for a much wider base."

Why Make It Accessible

Why make a previously obscure technique accessible to all players? Principal designer the development lead says the team wants gamers to experience empowerment — including ones who are inexperienced.

"Our community performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we examined at other games, looked at what the community execute, and we wondered, 'How can we extend some of this power to more players?'" Mohan clarifies. "Because currently, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to use — it requires to remap your keybinds and execute within precise timings. We proposed, 'What if we make a more official implementation?'"

Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility

Mobility is largely the name of the game in Season 27, with characters Horizon, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to maintain them mobile. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and the Gravity Lift will propel users into the air faster than before. Rampart's Amped Cover now include overhead protection and capability to provide movement bonuses to those nearby. But it's the high-flying this Legend who's getting significant improvements this season, with multiple tweaks applied to make her stronger, faster, and deadlier.

"I think many agree that Valkyrie's time is here," says Legend designer the designer. "Certainly that she's been dominant previously, but due to the addition of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and Evac Towers, it felt like she's not very relevant in today's Apex. It was a really great opportunity for the team to reexamine multiple elements [of her kit] and sort of bring her back to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore her competitive status in the game's meta, Holstead notes Respawn assessed all her skills and introduced some powerful changes. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing her speed while airborne, and this equipment regenerates much quicker, enabling the player to remain longer in the air. Now she won't be harmed from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to mark opponents who are hit from it. Her Skyward Dive skill — which launches her entire squad skyward for redeployment or escape — requires much less time to fire up. Additionally, she gains recently added perk choices that users can select to conserve resources, widen the area of her rockets, or accelerate her ultimate takeoff time.

"Valkyrie's equipment now delivers on the pilot experience," Holstead comments.

Map Changes

Even the game's lone airborne map, Olympus, receives a movement-friendly facelift, with major changes that opens up choke points and makes securing elevated positions more manageable. Respawn says Apex Legends this update is all about providing gamers the resources required to keep up with matches.

"Really, we examined Apex's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," says principal designer Josh Mohan.

Apex Legends the Amped season releases Nov. 4 at the specified times.